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The Benevolent Spirit and the Higher Education. 



AN ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE 



Educational Association of Virginia^ 

AT NORFOLK, JULY 8, i88i, 
BY 

OTTJLITJS ID- IDE^BHEE., 

President of Roanoke College, Salem, Va. 



[Reprinted from the Educational Joarnal of Virginia for January, 1882.] 



^Y. M.C. A. Library 




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EXPLANATORY. 



The following Address was accepted, at the time of its delivery, for 
publication in the Educational Journal of Virginia. Its appear- 
ance was, however, delayed until January, 1882, when the full pro- 
ceedings of the Annual Convention of the Educational Association of 
Virginia were published in that Journal. The Address is reprinted in 
its present form by the advice of friends and in the hope of aiding, in 
some small degree, the great object which led to its preparation. 



IN JEXCHANGF. 



The Benevolent Spirit and tlje Higher Education. 



THE BENEVOLENT SPIRIT. 

That grand educator, John Milton, began his famous Tractate on 
Education with these words: "I am long since persuaded that to say 
-and do aught worth memory and imitation, no purpose or respect 
should sooner move us than simply the love of God and of mankind." 
And Shaftesbury has beautifully defined the benevolent spirit: "To 
love the public, to study universal good, and to promote the interest 
of the whole world, as far as lies within our power, is the height of 
goodness, and makes that temper which we call divine," 

Love of family and friends may render a man, in a narrow circle, 
generous; pity for human suffering, charitable; attachment to his 
locality, public-spirited ; and devotion to his country, patriotic ; but a 
truly benevolent spirit will lift him above the narrow sphere of family, 
-locality, state, section, and nation, and fill him with universal good- will 
and an active desire for the happiness and prosperity of the whole 
human family, of every nation, creed, race, color, or condition. A 
benevolent man cannot be indifferent to the welfare of nations, however 
-distant, or to the happiness of individuals, however far removed above 
him by reason of birth, education, social position, or official station, or 
below him by ignorance, poverty, misfortune, vice, or even crime. 
While life lasts and the possibility of doing good remains, so long will 
benevolence feel interested in promoting the happiness of all — even of 
the unworthy. 

Men admire warriors, statesmen, orators, and poets, for the splendor 
of their deeds and the greatness of their achievements ; but the deepest 
reverence and tenderest affection of mankind have ever been paid to 
the memory of those whose lives have been dedicated to works of 
mercy and love. Few men ever sink too low to respect and love 
characters like Florence Nightingale and John Howard ; and no man, 
however selfish, can fail to do at least silent homage to those by whose 



self-denial and disinterested labors the benevolent enterprises of the- 
world have been pushed forward to success. Lord Chatham calls be- 
nevolence, in great matters, "the queen of virtues." It may be added, 
that this queen holds sway in the empire of noble hearts by the power 
of goodness, and not by the authority of law. 

The benevolent spirit — the opposite of selfishness — is the outgrowth 
of Christianity. The highest civilization of Greece and Rome sanc- 
tioned laws and permitted practices repulsive to the humane spirit of 
our age — an age which may be justly called the era of humanity. The 
great principle of self-sacrifice for the good of others, was but dimly 
understood by the best men of antiquity. Even in modern times, 
among the most cultivated heathen nations, a refined selfishness holds 
such sway among the highest classes that it is almost impossible for 
missionaries to explain, so as to be understood, the disinterested motives 
underlying the efforts to evangelize the world. And the question is 
constantly recurring, How much are you paid for each convert ? 

It is true that in our country there are benevolent men who are not 
Christians, and some who even oppose Christianity; but it is equally 
true that such persons are indebted for their benevolent spirit to the 
unconscious influences of a high Christian civilization. 

MANIFESTATIONS OF THIS SPIRIT. 

The benevolent spirit has manifested itself in the alleviation of 
human suffering, the elevation of the degraded, the reformation of the 
vicious, the amelioration of the condition of the unfortunate, the pre- 
vention of all forms of cruelty; in the organization of Bible, Tract, 
and Missionary Societies, and especially in the building of Colleges and 
Universities. The benevolent spirit is so intimately connected with the 
religious sentiment, that the interest manifested in Christian education 
and missions may be taken as the measure of the benevolent spirit of 
any people. It being admitted that this spirit is the fair flower of our 
Christian civilization and that its field is the world, we see at once why 
it is especially interested in the objects mentioned. The desire for the 
good of the human family seeks gratification. The highest attainment 
of the race is expressed in the term Christian civilization. How to 
improve and perpetuate this civilization, where already established, 
and how to extend it over the world, are the great questions therefore 
which are constantly pressing upon the attention of the benevolent. 
To render any organized effort effective, men of literary culture and 
earnest consecration are needed. Fundamental, then, to any successful 
effort to extend our civilization, is the higher education to fit men for 



the work of exposing the rottenness of existing pagan systems, and of 
planting on the ruins of these the fair fabric of Christian society — the 
foundation of a permanent civilization. This has always been one of 
the leading arguments for the establishment of Christian Colleges in 
our own country. And now such language as the following is used in 
appealing for money to plant Colleges in other lands: "The name of 
George Peabody is justly honored in two hemispheres, as an example 
of large-hearted philanthropy ; but it is the privilege of some men and 
women in our churches to do a work for the social and moral elevation 
of the human race of grander scope and more beneficent results. The 
man or woman who founds a College or a Seminary, is living for the 
ages to come. The man or woman who should now set apart a half 
million of dollars, the income of which should be used to found a Chris- 
tian institution of learning, in some part of the heathen world every 
two or three years for the next century, would exert an influence upon 
the social and moral destinies of the human race, such as has no paral- 
lel in the annals of recorded time." 

If the benevolent spirit is desirous that the work be done abroad, it 
is none the less concerned that all proper influences be exerted to pre- 
serve the- institutions of our country. The nature of the demand is 
well set forth in the circular of the "New West Education Commis- 
sion" recently organized in Chicago : " Several States and Territories 
of immense extent, and enriched with mineral deposits and agricultural 
wealth of inconceivable value, are attracting a vast immigration ; and 
the institutions of education and religion fail utterly to keep pace with 
the demand for them. Mining communities are springing up with 
unexampled rapidity in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, 
and, like such communities universally, are unstable, excitable, absorbed 
with the desire for gain, and careless of improvement. Christian benev- 
olence must lend its aid freely and abundantly, if the States, there 
forming, are to be built on intelligence, and regard for justice and 
human rights." 

In accomplishing the grand purposes indicated, men of discernment 
have ever regarded higher education as a potent factor. Fully recog- 
nizing the power of education in the progress of the human race, benevo- 
lent persons are profoundly concerned about the spirit fostered and the 
motives inspired at educational centers. They believe that character 
is higher than culture or knowledge, and that character -building is, 
therefore, the highest function of education. They further believe that 
education, divorced from morals and religion, cannot save a people 
irom ruin. With them, therefore, the prime consideration is that the 



6 

higher education shall he conducted by men, not only of ability and 
culture, but also of earnest purpose and benevolent spirit. For the 
true idea of a College is not found in buildings, libraries, cabinets, 
apparatus, and endowments. These are only the means to be used by 
the teachers, who are really the College. Who can estimate the living, 
personal influence and character of the teacher on the pupil during the- 
formative period of early life? Alexander the Great said that he 
owed more to Aristotle than to his father. Names might be mentioned 
from the educational history of our country of men whose influence 
has been worth more than millions of gold to the American people. 
How a man will use what he knows, is a more important question than 
how much he knows. Where a majority controls the government, it. 
becomes a matter of national importance how a man will use the 
knowledge he acquires. The perpetuity of good government depends 
upon the intelligence and virtue of the people. "A nation," says Mil- 
ton, " ought to be as one huge Christian personage, one mighty growth 
or stature of an honest man, as big and compact in virtue as in body, 
for look what the ground and causes are of single happiness to one- 
man, the same you shall find them to a whole State." 

An able writer, — none too friendly to Christianity, — in an article on 
" Education and the Religious Sentiment," in the National Quarterly' 
Heview, for October, 1878, says : " It is true, as a general principle, 
that the period of a nation's greatest power is when the religious senti- 
ment is most fervid," and that "all the evidence goes to show that not 
one University founded before the eighteenth century but was estab- 
lished for the glory of God and the church." In our country 104 of 
the first 119 Colleges had a distinctively Christian origin; and it is 
true to-day that no literary institution avowedly indifferent to religion 
can flourish in the United States. 

I must be permitted to introduce here so much of what I stated be- 
fore this Association last year on Endowments, as to show that the 
first literary foundations had their origin in the benevolent spirit. At 
the ancient Universities of Europe, free lodging and boarding houses 
for the use of indigent students were provided by charitable persons. 
The benevolent desire to perpetuate this charity led to the placing of 
funds in the hands of corporate bodies, and thus endowed Colleges 
arose to spread abroad their beneficent influences. The large accumu- 
lations, yielding several millions annually, at Oxford and Cambridge, 
represent the gifts of benevolent persons for centuries. The noble 
donors who thus invested money for the good of mankind have indeed 
passed from the sight of men, but the influences which they set in 



motion have largely made Great Britain what it is, and by training the 
men who laid the foundations of our educational and civil institutions, 
have, in a measure, made America what it is. 

BENEVOLENT FEATURE OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION. 

If the higher education did not embrace a benevolent feature, few 
young men could receive a collegiate training. It is apparent that a 
student who receives the instruction and enjoys the literary advantages 
of a good College a year for the small sum usually charged as tuition 
fees, does not begin to pay the full value of the service rendered and 
the benefits conferred. It is because generous lovers of learning have 
given large sums to a College that it is enabled to offer superior ad- 
vantages at small cost. Each studenf is, therefore, a debtor to the 
benefactors of the institution at which he is educated. And this sug- 
gests the thought that endowments are needed not for the few, but for 
the many. If there were no University foundations, the wealthy could 
command the best talent and facilities by paying tuition fees largely in 
excess of those charged anywhere to-day. But while the sons of 
wealthy gentlemen might enjoy this costly luxury in this way, youths 
of slender means would be almost wholly cut off from these advan- 
tages. Endowments, therefore, while conferring benefits on all alike, 
are an especial blessing to those who do not belong to the wealthy 
classes. Our American Colleges are essentially democratic. 

Colleges, founded as they are for the public good and not for the 
private advantage of the Trustees and Faculty, must rely on the 
benevolence of the public for the means to accomplish the beneficent 
purposes of their foundation. A gentleman, therefore, whose son is 
the recipient, in some degree, of the bounty of others, is himself under 
obligation, if his means justify, to further increase the usefulness of 
literary institutions. 

A generous Pennsylvanian, whose son had just returned from Prince- 
ton, was so profoundly impressed with the reflection that the College 
could not provide such advantages at so small cost, had not liberal 
benefactions been given by its friends, promptly drew a check, unso- 
licited, and forwarded it to the treasurer of that institution. If the 
same liberal sentiment were general, how many institutions would be 
relieved of burdens — how many would enlarge their facilities and 
widen their usefulness ! 

BENEFACTIONS IN AMERICA. 

No country has surpassed our own in munificent gifts to benevolent 



8 

objects, and especially to the higher education. This fact has called 
forth many encomiums from high foreign sources, but perhaps nothing 
more appreciative and discriminating than the following from the 
report of the French Commission to the International Exhibition in 
1876 : " The wealth of the United States is incalculable precisely be- 
cause intellectual wealth counts for an enormous proportion. We 
sometimes think that the eagerness of the Americans to support and 
improve schools is a kind of national pride, vanity, or show. Not at 
all. It is a calculation, and a sound one; enormous advances are 
made, but it is known that they will be returned a hundred fold." 
With the increase of wealth in bur country, there seems to be a grow- 
ing disposition to invest large sums for the public benefit. 

Within two years the gifts to educational institutions aggregate over 
$18,000,000. What a thrilling statement is that! It makes one proud 
of his country and his age ; but to us it brings a sense of shame that 
80 little of that vast sum was given by Southern men. The Southern 
people are not rich. When they were, they did leas than they are 
doing to-day. It is a sad confession, but it is true, that there has never 
existed a benevolent spirit towards education in the South. Let me 
quote from the stirring address of the President of this Association 
(that veteran educator, Prof. 0. L. Cocke), at our Convention last year : 
" Most remarkable is the fact, that during a period of two hundred 
years a highly cultured people of many millions have failed to establish 
a single institution on an independent, enduring and liberal basis ; and 
worse still, after the lapse of two centuries we find these people utterly 
unwilling and unprepared to establish such a school. Capital refuses, 
still absolutely and unequivocally, to come to the rescue — it needs cul- 
ture and expansion of views. Men of means, and intelligence too, will 
give their hundreds of thousands to profligate sons, which they must 
know will work their inevitable ruin, rather than make permanent 
investments in educational establishments. Whence this culture and 
this elevated social life which have come all along down the gener- 
ations? * * * A class of men and women, scattered all through 
this land, often excluded from aristocratic circles, often despised on 
account of their calling, have devoted themselves to this work with an 
earnestness and forgetfulness of self and selfish ends, and with a suc- 
cess and power which make a teacher feel proud of his profession, of 
his people and his age. * * Ifc has been with them a labor of love, 
of State pride, of pure and sublime patriotism, of intelligent Chris- 
tian philanthropy — an earnest life-long consecration to the elevation of 
their species and the true glory of their country. Here is the secret — 



9 

here is the marvelous magic power, working, as it were, unseen, and 
unrewarded behind the stage, which has inspired and sent forth on 
the arena of life culture, refinement, intelligence, virtue, and noble, 
exalted character." The conclusion is, that teachers in the South have 
shown a self-sacrificing devotion, which has not called out that sym- 
pathy, cooperation and benevolence which should have been the result. 

BENEVOLENCE, NORTH AND SOUTH. 

It is proposed to inquire into the causes which underlie the differ- 
ence between Northern and Southern people in giving money to educa- 
tional institutions. Born and educated in the South, an ex-Con- 
federate soldier, whose home lay in the line of Sherman's destructive 
march in South Carolina, I trust I may be indulged in a little plain 
speaking, if I speak in love, and find reason for encouragement in our 
educational work. Let it be borne in mind that this comparison is 
made 'purely in the line of the present discussion, and hence many 
points, important in a general comparison, are omitted here, because 
they do not bear on the benevolent spirit in its relation to education. 

1. Character of the first settlers and their descendants. The New Eng- 
land fathers, Puritans and Pilgrims (for these are not synonymous terms, 
though often so used) were men of the deepest religious conviction, 
which is the strongest moral power in the world. In many things they 
were narrow — perhaps bigoted — but no one can read their history with- 
out admiring their moral courage, their strong faith, their noble aspira- 
tions, their consecrated purpose. Their Christian sentiments found 
expression — often quaintly — in their laws and in all their public acts. 
The victims of oppression in their native land, a common cause and 
common sufferings riveted the bonds of common interest and affection 
in their new homes. This was beautifully expressed by Robert Cush- 
man, a layman, in an address to the Plymouth settlers a little over a 
year after the landing : 

"May you live as retired hermits and look after nobody? Nay, 
you must seek still the wealth of one another, and inquire as David : 
How liveth such a man? How is he clad? How is he fed? He is 
my brother, my associate ; we ventured our lives together and had a 
hard brunt of it, and we are in league together. * * * He is as 
good a man as I, and we are bound each to other so that his wants must 
be my wants, his sorrow my sorrow, his sickness my sickness, and his 
welfare my welfare, for I am as he is. And such a sweet sympathy 
were excellent, comfortable, yea heavenly, and is the only maker and 



10 

conserver of churches and Commonwealths ; and when this is wanting,, 
ruin comes on quickly." Whatever influence the peculiar circumstances 
of these early days exerted on the colonists and their descendants, it is 
true that the Northern people have been eminently practical, not only 
in the conduct of business, but also in giving substantial expression of 
their sympathies and in founding institutions to perpetuate their 
principles. 

These men encouraged learning from the beginning by their own 
gifts and exertions. Harvard was founded only ten years after the 
first settlement. As early as 1644, in Connecticut, and 1647, in Mas- 
sachusetts, it was ordered that " none of the brethren shall suffer such 
barbarism in their families as not to teach their children and appren- 
tices so much learning as may enable them perfectly to read the Eng- 
lish tongue." Common schools were early established in every village 
of fifty householders. With such a beginning is it surprising that New 
England is educated, liberal, influential, and benevolent? "Disguise 
it as you may," said Senator Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia, in the 
United States Senate, " the New England States, with their schools 
and universities, have dictated laws to this Continent. They have sent 
New England ideas all over the West, and they dominate there." 

The Northern people have been distinguished for industrious and 
economical habits. By many they are thought to be niggardly, but 
upon close examination it will be found that, while wasting very little 
money in personal extravagance, they contribute freely to all public 
objects of a benevolent character. The editor of Scribners Monthly 
for August, 1880, in an article on '* Personal Economies," after re- 
ferring to the economical habits of New Englanders, says : " We are 
quite aware that something of grace and lovableness was lost in the 
habit of these small economies. Men grew small quite too often, and 
pinched and stingy, by the habit of penny savings. This has been 
brought against New England as a reproach, but New England has re- 
plied, with truthfulness and pride, that no people of the country, or of 
the world, have been more benevolent than her own economical chil- 
dren. She points to the vast sums she has expended on Christian mis- 
sions and to the great public charities whose monuments crown her 
hill- tops, and shows that at the call of Christianity and humanity her 
purse, filled with such pains-taking and self-denial, flies open and 
empties itself to fill the measure of the public need." The statistics 
of contributions to colleges, schools, and churches in our own and 
foreign lands ; to Mission, Tract, and Bible Societies ; for work among 
the Indians of the West and the negroes of the South ; and for the re- 



11 

lief of human suffering everywhere, fully justify the warmth of Dr» 
Holland's eulogy. 

If we come now to Virginia and the South generally, we shall not 
find in their early history the same earnest, religious spirit which ia 
born of persecution and oppression. And yet the people of the South 
are eminently religious, and, I think, more reverent than their North- 
ern brethren. This distinction, however, it seems to me, should be 
indicated here. At the South, there has been a far more rigid adhe- 
rence to what is known as orthodoxy ; while at the North, with greater 
freedom in the interpretation of doctrines, there has been more prac- 
tical evidence of Christian life. In brief, the South is more orthodox 
in faith, the North in works. The religious activity of the North has 
been largely directed into educational channels. Hence the large gifts 
and bequests to Christian Colleges. 

We do not find that there was in the early history of Virginia a 
strong sentiment in favor of popular education and intelligence ; else 
Governor Berkeley would hardly have written in 1670, "I thank God 
there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have 
them these hundred years." Virginia received many scions of aris- 
tocracy who brought with them the love of idleness and pleasure, and 
contempt for work, which were characteristic of that class. The sports 
of the English aristocracy were held in high esteem. In 1752, the 
authorities of William and Mary College made a rigid regulation for- 
bidding students from keeping their race-horses in the neighborhood of 
the College, or from taking part in any way in races. The aristocratic- 
classes, composed mainly of persons of liberal culture and taste, gave 
tone to society and contributed much to gain for Virginia and the 
South a well deserved reputation for social refinement and generous 
hospitality. Money was spent freely, but it did not flow into benevo- 
lent channels. There was everything to make life attractive to the 
upper classes — to throw a charm around the old plantation life, with 
its round of pleasures and lavish hospitalities ; but there was lacking, 
for some reason, that benevolent spirit which finds its highest enjoy- 
ment in the public welfare. 

2. The influence of Slavery. — In what I am about to say under this 
head, I do not forget that the whole country was responsible for the 
existence of slavery. My present purpose is not to discuss fully this 
institution of the past, but to discover, if possible, its influence on the 
character of our people. And first, let it be remarked, that whatever 
views men may entertain of this institution, and whatever may have 
been its redeeming features, it nevertheless rested upon the propo- 



12 

sition that some men had the right to the life-long labor of other men 
for nothing — a proposition so utterly at variance with the benevolent 
spirit, that it may well be doubted whether this spirit can co-exist with 
-slavery. A benevolent man desires the greatest happiness to the 
greatest number, an equal chance to all men. to rise, and every wise 
help, and encouragement to all in the race of life. It would be easy 
to show that the benevolent spirit is strongest where there is the great- 
est individual freedom, where equality of opportunity exists, and where 
a high estimate is placed on man as man. 

By degrading labor, slavery weakened the impulse which lies at the 
foundation of all progress, and consequently repressed public spirit and 
enterprise. The profound philosopher, De Tocqueville, in his " Demo- 
cracy in America," did not fail to notice at length the difference be- 
tween the slave and the free States ; and, after comparing Ohio and 
Kentucky, separated geographically by a narrow river, but widely by 
the institution of slavery, concludes thus : 

" Were I inclined to continue this parallel, I could easily prove that 
almost all the differences, which may be remarked between the charac- 
ters of the Americans in the Southern and in the Northern States, have 
originated in slavery; but this would divert me from my subject, and 
my present intention is not to point out all the consequences of servi- 
tude, but those effects which it has produced upon the prosperity of 
the countries which have admitted it." 

And again : ** The influence of slavery upon the production of wealth 
must have been very imperfectly known in antiquity, as slavery then 
obtained throughout the civilized world, and the nations which were 
unacquainted with it were barbarous. And indeed Christianity only 
abolished slavery by advocating the claims of the slave ; at the present 
time, it may be attacked in the name of the master; and, upon this 
point, interest is reconciled with morality." 

The French philosopher then proceeds to speak of the privileged 
individuals whose wealth was permanent, and whose leisure was 
hereditary ; who maintained the honor of inactive life ; whose ranks 
contained many who were poor, but none who would work ; and whose 
members preferred want to labor. The result of this social system was 
to degrade labor and place a premium on idleness. It may be re- 
marked, in passing, that De Tocqueville himself, though born to rank 
and fortune, voluntarily relinquished these powerful aids to promotion, 
preferring to rise in the world by his own unaided exertions. 

Benevolence and idleness have no kinship. With Benjamin Frank- 
Jin, the benevolent man holds that whoever loves life will not squander 



13 

time for that is the stuff life is made of. Benevolence, being an active 
virtue, goes out in earnest desire to do good. Its possessor, however 
rich, will not retire in middle life to enjoy inglorious ease or enfeebling 
pleasures, but will continue to accumulate that he may have the more 
to bestow. It is convincing evidence that a man has a low idea of 
living when he is ever seeking ease and pleasure, just as if there were 
no useful work to do and no human being to bless. This world was 
not intended for a loafing-saloon or a play-house. 

Stephen Girard left his home in France at the age of fourteen. 
" Since then," he wrote, " I can say with truth, I have made my way 
alone, with means gained from my nurse, the sea." At sixty-three he 
said : " But my love of labor, which has not left me yet, has placed me 
in the ranks of citizens useful to society." In his will, providing for 
the establishment of Girard College, he uses this language : " My de- 
sire is that all the instructors and teachers in the college shall take 
pains to instill into the minds of the scholars the purest principles of 
morality, so that on their entrance into active life they may, from in- 
clination and habit, evince benevolence towards their fellow- creatures, 
and a love of truth, sobriety, and industry^ adopting at the same time 
such religious tenets as their matured reason may enable them to 
prefer," 

George Peabody, the benefactor of two continents, was born of parents 
too poor to do more than give him the advantages of a common school 
education, and that only up to the age of eleven, when he was appren- 
ticed to a country storekeeper. When young Peabody, yet in his teens, 
went to Boston to engage in business, his capital consisted in his credit 
alone. Established in mercantile pursuits in Baltimore at the age of 
twenty, he wrote to his mother that "he should be able, for the future, 
to supply the family with flour." 

Asa Packer, the munificent founder of the Lehigh University, 
began life as a poor boy in New England, his educational opportunities 
being limited to the common schools. A long life of industry and 
economy was crowned with financial success, and with the higher glory 
of adding another illustrious name to the list of America's benefactors 
and philanthropists. Of his ample fortune he devoted to educational 
and charitable objects over three millions of dollars, the greater part 
of this large sum going to the Lehigh University, the library alone 
having an endowment fund of over $300,000. 

Ario Pardee, the liberal patron of Lafayette College ; Peter Cooper, 
whose face is the index of a benevolent heart; Commodore Vander- 
bilt, the founder of Vanderbilt University ; and Johns Hopkins, who 



14 

made the largest single bequest on record to education; — these four 
began life in humble circumstances, and by habits of industry and eco- 
nomy, became benefactors of the race. 

Amos Lawrence, of Boston, one of the most benevolent men of our 
country, began life with an apprenticeship of seven years and then 
started in business with a capital of twenty dollars. In 1852 at the 
age of sixty-six, he wrote thus : " The outgoes for all objects since 1842 
(ten years) have been $604,000, more than five-sixths of which have 
been applied to making other people happy." 

Samuel Williston, who gave several hundred thousand dollars to 
Amherst College and other objects and endowed the Williston Seminary 
with $350,000, was so straitened financially in his early life, that his wife 
had recourse to making lasting buttons to meet the most pressing house- 
hold necessities. With keen business foresight and untiring industry, he 
built up a large business in manufacturing buttons, accumulated a for- 
tune, and consecrated it to the good of his fellow-men. 

Of the same class of men, was Samuel Miller, of Albemarle county, 
Virginia, who succeeded in amassing a large fortune and became the 
founder of the Miller Manual Labor School for the training of the 
orphan boys of his native county. This institution has the finest school 
building in Virginia and a permanent fund of over $1,000,000. Mr. 
Miller also endowed an orphan asylum in Lynchburg and gave the 
University of Virginia $100,000. A poor boy — a wealthy man — Vir- 
ginia's munificent patron of learning ! 

These few examples, out of many which might be cited, will suffice 
to illustrate that industry and economy, homely virtues though they 
be, are often united in the same person with the higher virtue of benev- 
olence which dedicates the fruits of labor and frugality to the eleva- 
tion and happiness of mankind. What stronger testimony could be 
borne to the value of higher education than that men, so little indebted 
to early literary training for their eminent success in business, should 
give generously to provide for others advantages which they themselves 
never enjoyed? 

Shut up to the supposed necessity of defending slavery, the South 
imposed upon itself an isolation and provincialism which retarded gen- 
eral prosperity, cut her people ofi" from the world's progress, and pre- 
vented the growth of the more generous impulses of humanity which 
were making headway among the nations of the earth. And now that 
great changes have come — changes which have left ugly scars and 
bitter memories — we may pause to reflect that however unwise, and 
-even fanatical, some of the Northern people were on the question of 



15 

-abolishing slavery, they were nevertheless reflecting the sober judg- 
ment of the civilized world — a judgment in which all Southern people 
will sooner or later concur. It is not necessary longer to speak on this 
subject with bated breath. Nor should any of us, in the light of the 
present, indulge in bitter reproaches of the past. If we study these 
questions, let it be to find encouragement for present efforts in the hope 
of future success. 

In reference to the isolation of the South, I beg to quote from the 
Columbia Register^ the leading Democratic paper of the capital" of 
South Carolina : 

"There was one phase of the institution of slavery that always — 
slave-owners as we were ourselves — seemed to us a great stumbling- 
block and hindrance. It was the narrowness that grew out of the 
isolation that slavery imposed on the units of society, the individual 
families constituting the social aggregation. The incapacity to com- 
bine, the unwillingness to take counsel together and to act as one man 
toward any given purpose for a common good or common end, was a 
marked concomitant of the institution. ' I object,' met the most earnest 
spirit that ever moved on any line of practical forethought and prac- 
tical accomplishment; *I object,' was the great planter argument 
throughout the South, and the second was like unto it — ' You can't do 
it.' 'I object,' or 'You can't do it,' has balked our churches, cramped 
our industries, stinted our charities, starved our minds, blunted our 
understandings, and belittled us into impotence when we might have 
been strong. Hence we resorted to a war, the result of a chronic sulk, 
under chronic aggression, without an arm to wage offensive or defensive 
warfare, without the mechanical skill to supply some of the most sub- 
stantial wants of the great upheaval. What could be done was shown 
by what was done under the pressure of the necessity in the most 
wonderful manner. But if we lost the victory in one sense, we have 
won it in another. We have been taught what the South can do for 
itself if it wills to do it. If we have lost the victory on the field of 
fight, we can win it back in the workshop, in the factory, in an im- 
proved agriculture and horticulture, in our mines and in our school- 
houses. That is where our fight lies now, and the only enemies before 
us are the prejudices of the past, the instincts of isolation, the brutal 
indifference and harmful social infidelity which stand up in our day 
with the old slave argument at its heart and on its lips — * I object,' and 
'You can't do it.'" 

The same idea has been well expressed by the Committee calling the 
present Convention of this Association, in the following language : 



16 

" "We repeat, we should act, and act together as an Association. The 
lack of organized co-operation has always been one of the greatest 
sources of weakness in the development of the whole South. Let us 
have done with it." 

3. Influence of Legislation. Law is crystallized thought, and hence 
is a powerful teacher. Whatever is taught by the laws of a people for 
years becomes to them unquestioned truth. Educational legislation in 
the South embodied certain ideas. For instance, providing the higher 
education at the expense of the State and giving little or no advantages 
to the masses, who most needed aid, embodied the idea that if the State 
educated the upper classes (for in reality it amounted to this) it was 
not a matter of concern whether the masses were educated or illiterate. 
Here legislation was just the opposite of the benevolent maxim that 
where the need is greatest the call of duty is strongest. Such legisla- 
tion tended to weaken the idea of the importance of general intelli- 
gence among the people. 

I may not omit to mention here the influence of laws making it 
criminal to teach a slave even so little as to enable him to read. I 
know it was admitted to be a necessity of the institution to enact such 
laws, but so harsh a necessity could not fail to affect injuriously the 
humane sentiments of the people. This fact did not escape the notice 
of the profound French statesman from whom I have already quoted, 
and we accordingly find in his great work pointed references to the 
difference between American and Eoman slavery with respect to the 
education of the slaves. 

Gentlemen of the Educational Association: I have endeavored to set 
before you some thoughts on the work done for higher education 
through the operation of the spirit of benevolence. I have treated the 
subject in the manner best calculated, as I trust, to subserve the in- 
terests we have in hand by inciting the people of our section to the 
discharge of a high duty to our educational institutions. The views I 
have advanced are the result of study and observation. That they 
should not be adopted by some will not be a matter of surprise to me. 
From what I have said on the influence of slavery, you will infer that 
I regard the abolition of that institution as an occasion of devout grati- 
tude to our whole country, and especially to those who are devoting^ 
their lives to the work of teaching in the South. I do so feel from 
the bottom of a grateful heart. So soon after the losses of a fierce 
civil struggle, ending in bitter defeat, the South is instinct with a new 
life, the inspiration of universal freedom and education. The dawn of 



17 

a new era — materially and intellectually — is upon us. Henceforth the 
development of our section of the Union will be rapid. The opening 
of mines, the erection of manufacturing establishments, the building of 
railroads, and the improvements in agriculture, will soon change the 
material condition of the South. Immigration will ere long flow into 
this region of salubrity and fertility. Diversified industries and in- 
creased population mean augmented wealth for all purposes, and let us 
hope especially for education. It cannot be that a people, so open- 
handed to friends and kindred, so hospitable to all, so extravagant in 
gratifying the desire of pleasure, will not come up to the full measure 
of duty when the want is fully appreciated and the means are in hand 
to meet it. 

As educators, we need to teach economy in the use of time and 
money. There are yet idlers enough in the South to make the whole 
country prosperous; and our impoverished Virginia people soend mil- 
lions for whiskey, not to name tobacco, which should be better invested. 
We cannot afford to ignore these facts. Idleness and induigence never 
make men benevolent. Industry and self-denial are virtues which 
build up strong men, and make nations prosperous. " The worst edu- 
cation," says John Sterling, " which teaches self-denial, is better than 
the best which teaches everything else, and not that." Sir Walter 
Scott speaks with equal emphasis: "There never did, and never will, 
exist anything permanently noble and excellent in a character which 
was a stranger to the exercise of resolute self-denial." 

In the coming prosperity we have a great danger to meet. When 
men are prosperous, it is all the more difficult to build up noble, benevo- 
lent character. In periods of unwonted prosperity, the material often 
gains the ascendancy over the higher spiritual nature. Men are 
tempted to forget that there is something higher and nobler and better 
than building railroads and factories, opening mines, and filling money- 
coffers. Manhood is the great want of the age ; character is a richer 
possession than gold. 

Many persons in our country look with alarm at the threatened 
danger of the secularization of education. Believing, in no narrow, 
sectarian sense, that the best interests of the Union and the happiness 
of coming generations, require a decided religious element in education, 
and believing that the State cannot guard the interests of morals and 
religion so well as corporate boards of trustees, they prefer that the 
State should not have full control over the higher education. The un- 
answerable argument for public free schools is that only in this way 
will the mass of the people receive elementary training, and that the 



18 

State must, therefore, by this method protect itself against the dangers 
of an ignorant population. The argument of necessity and protection 
to the State, does not hold with reference to the higher education. 

In our educational work, we are apt to expect too much from legis- 
lation and rely too little on individual effort. The best results reached 
in this country in the higher education, are in the New England 
and the Middle States, where ample provision has been made 
at the public expense only for the lower education. There pub- 
lic spirit and benevolence have carried the work forward and 
built up colleges and universities. And is it not in accord- 
ance with a law of human nature that these higher institutions 
should be all the dearer to the people because they are the outgrowth 
of public spirit meeting a great public want? These institutions rep- 
resent the toils and sacrifices of many noble men who gave their lives 
to a great cause ; they represent, too, in their grand buildings, libraries, 
cabinets, and liberal endowments, the benevolent spirit of several gen- 
erations ; and by the force of example and continued usefulness, they 
appeal powerfully for a continuance of generous benefactions. 

As an illustration of the hom)r bestowed on these benefactors of 
education, let me quote from the address of Prof. W. S. Tyler, D. D., 
LL. D., commemorative of Samuel Williston : " It is only a few men 
of rare discernment who can look beyond immediate and temporary 
issues to remote and permanent results. It is, therefore, simple even- 
handed justice to bestow rare honor on men of such rare wisdom and 
virtue ; to perpetuate their memories by making them commensurate 
with the duration of the institutions which they have founded ; to 
mete out to them a height of renown, a breadth of esteem, and a depth 
of veneration corresponding with the breadth, and length, and height, 
and depth of their foundations and the comprehensiveness of views 
and elevation of sentiments by which they were distinguished : it is 
right and proper that those who have studied, and labored, and prayed, 
and denied themselves, and sacrificed themselves to educate and enrich 
the minds and hearts of many generations, should be enshrined in the 
grateful and affectionate remembrance of men from age to age." 

We have, as educators, great encouragement in the new educational 
impulse stirring the people of the South. There is a general waking 
up on this vital question. There is a growing disposition to give 
money for educational objects. The handsome edifice in which we 
, hold these sessions (Norfolk College for Young Ladies) is a monument 
to the zeal and generosity of the people of this city. What we need 
most to cultivate is a general appreciation of the demands of the 



19 

higher education. Believe me, we must have endowments to support 
our Faculties and to enable our Colleges to do benevolent work. The 
academies of New England have more endowment than the aggregate 
amount given by the Southern people in their years of prosperity to 
our Colleges and Universities. Only last winter a gentleman in Boston 
left by will to a New Hampshire Academy the handsome sum of two 
hundred thousand dollars. And in that city of rare educational ad- 
vantages, a benevolent lady is herself supporting over twenty schools 
for poor children. Near the city in which we are holding these ses- 
sions stands the Hampton Institute, with an income from annual con- 
tributions larger than the income of any other institutions in Virginia, 
with the exception of the State University and the Miller Manual 
Labor School. May such facts stimulate our people to generous emu- 
lation ! We need large gifts, not only for existing Colleges and schools, 
but alsa to found public libraries and establish other agencies for dis- 
seminating general intelligence among our people. 

The South presents to-day a fruitful field for benevolent operations. 
The ignorance among the white population is simply appalling. What 
shall be said of the colored people?* If the missionary spirit exists 
an^ong us we do not need to cross oceans to find a wide field for the 
investment of money and the employment of men and women. All 
over the South are poor girls and boys who need help an.d encourage- 
ment in fitting themselves for useful living. The coming immigration 
and prosperity will impose new obligations upon us, but let us hope that 
they will also bring with them the means to enable us to discharge 
these obligations. We have many difficulties to overcome ; many ob- 
stacles to remove. If we cannot overcome and remove all, let us at 
least do the best we can to smooth the path for those who are to follow. 

George Peabody — venerabile et honorahile nomen ! — sent to the cen- 
tennial celebration of his native town, Danvers, Mass., this sentiment : 
" Education, a debt due by one generation to another " ; and with that 
sentiment he enclosed a check for twenty thousand dollars. An 
eminent American educator impresses this thought in the following 
eloquent language : 

" Education is the giving to a new and rising generation whatever 
the old has got of value and power ; its arts and art ; its literature and 

* The length of this paper forbids the discussion of benevolent work among the 
negroes of the South. To those who feel interested in this phase of the question, 
I commend most warmly a little book — " Our Brother in Black — His Freedom 
and his Future," by Rev. Atticus G. Hay good, D. D., President of Emory College, 
Oxford, Ga. 



20 

philosophy ; its whole culture, and above all its morality and its re- 
ligion, transmitting these, like a sacred torch, from sire to son. Each 
generation is here both a creditor and a debtor — a creditor to the past 
for what it has received, a debtor to the future for what that is to be 
and become ; it can square the account with the past only by educating 
for the future ; and alas for that generation which does not carry a 
larger balance to its sons than it received from its fathers, for then it 
has lived in vain as to its highest functions and duties. Each human 
generation, because it is a living growth and not a dead machine, be- 
cause the law of growth is its vital law, owes to its youth the highest 
and best culture it can possibly confer." 

The past, with its record of heroic deeds, and its long line of noble 
men and noble women, is behind us. Its unimproved opportunities 
cannot be recalled. Its mistakes are irrevocable, so far as that past is 
concerned. Let the dead past then bury its dead. We are to live not 
for the dead, but for the living, and for those who are to come after us. 
Let us move forward, not backward. Nothing enduring has ever been 
done by those who lived for the present only ; nothing great has ever 
been accomplished without high aims and heroic effort. " I have aimed 
high," says Macauley ; "I have tried to do something that may|be 
remembered. I have had the year 2000 and even the year 3000 
often in my mind." What power and inspiration in an aim like that ! 
Again I say, let us take courage and move forward with our faces to 
the future — our land of promise! Let us rather think of 1965 than of 
1865, and as we do our duty faithfully in 1881, may we find inspira- 
tion in the thought that we are working for 2881, and for all the mil- 
lenniums that are to come thereafter ! 



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